The "Muhammad Ali Professional Sports, Inc.," scandal

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/01/sports/sports-of-the-times-the-maps-boxing-scandal.html
EVER since Muhammad Ali Professional Sports, Inc., began promoting big fights, its lavish spending has been suspect. ''Where is Maps getting all its money?'' people in boxing wonder. ''Where are all these millions coming from?''

Now the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office are asking the same questions in connection with an alleged $20 million embezzlement from a Wells Fargo Bank. Harold Smith, the Maps Chairman, reportedly has fled to Puerto Rico, with his wife and 4-year-old son. Another member of the Maps heirarchy, Ben Lewis, also has dropped out of sight. And the Feb. 23 card at Madison Square Garden that Maps was promoting with an outlay of $8 million to Gerry Cooney, Ken Norton, Thomas Hearns, Wilfred Benitez, Matthew Saad Muhammad and Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, among others, suddenly was in jeopardy.

Maybe boxing itself should be in jeopardy, too. Not because of what goes on inside the ring with the fighters; rather, because of what goes on outside the ring with the promoters.

Long before the current scrutiny of Maps, the F.B.I. had been checking into the financial behavior of Don King, initially scandalized four years ago by his television tournament. The other boxing promoter currently prominent, Bob Arum, has never been a candidate for canonization. And throughout the history of boxing, its promoters have infected the sport, especially since television began to increase the potential profits. Twenty years ago the International Boxing Club, a monopoly nicknamed Octopus Inc., had to be dissolved by a Federal court ruling.

As long as boxing has existed, it has attracted mostly schemers and con men as promoters. And it always will. Until now, the Maps promoters con was a take-off on that Smith Barney television commercial in which the actor John Houseman is a spokesman for the Wall Street brokerage firm.

''They make money the old-fashioned way,'' John Houseman says in his wonderfully throaty voice. ''They eeaarn it.'' When the Maps promoters held a news conference at Madison Square Garden about two months ago, their president, Sam Marshall, was asked where Maps got its money.

''We get our money the old-fashioned way,'' he replied. ''We eeaarn it.'' Their attorney, Ed Franklin, was asked the same question that day. ''The Smith Barney way,'' he said. ''Old-fashioned American hard work.'' Over the telephone two days later, Harold Smith parrotted the party line. ''I like to use that line from the TV commercial: 'We make our money the old-fashioned way, we earn it,' '' the Maps chairman replied. ''But actually, my wife is from a very wealthy family. And when we put this firm together, we got some friends to put up about $12 million to work with.''

Say this for Sam Marshall - he has not gone underground. As the Maps president, he was on display in Philadelphia yesterday for its promotion of the Jeff Chandler-Jorge Lujan bantamweight title fight on the CBS Television network.

But there has been some mystery about Sam Marshall's background. When he was asked two months ago what his occupation had been before joining Maps, he answered, ''I worked at a bank.'' But he declined to identify the bank other than to say, ''I was a senior analyst and a senior manager of another bank within the Beverly Hills area.'' Yesterday it was reported that Sam Marshall had worked for the Beverly Hills branch of the Wells Fargo bank that allegedly is under investigation.

At that Garden news conference nearly two months ago, the Maps attorney, Ed Franklin, once a Yale defensive back and a 1973 graduate of Yale Law School, described Maps as a ''breath of fresh air in boxing.''

When he was asked about the whispers that linked Maps's source of cash to suspicious suppliers, Ed Franklin replied easily, ''If you look at something long enough, you'll probably find something wrong with it.'' Apparently the F.B.I. and the Los Angeles District Attorney looked at Maps long enough.

The saving grace of the Maps scandal is that Muhammad Ali himself apparently is not directly involved. Two months ago, Ed Franklin estimated that Ali had earned nearly $1 milion in the previous year for the use of his name, but Ali has announced that he has disassociated himself from Maps until the smoke clears.

Ali had lent his name to the firm, but he had not yet agreed to accept its offer to be Maps chief executive officer. His decision had been delayed by his comeback last year at age 38 that resulted in his sad surrender to Larry Holmes, the World Boxing Council heavyweight champion, after 10 rounds. Ali's insistence on another bout this year against John L. Gardner of England has put off his decision on joining Maps as a full-time official.

''We want him to be our chief executive officer,'' the Maps attorney, Ed Franklin, had said two months ago. ''We need him to be our chief executive officer.''

Ali's connection with Harold Smith, a former rock-concert promoter, began with the formation of Muhammad Ali Amateur Sports, Inc., which put on track meets in California and organized an amateur boxing team. Muhammad Ali Amateur Sports was partly financed by Federal funds, one reason that the Ali group was among the first to support President Carter's proposed boycott of the summer Olympics in Moscow last year. Muhammad Ali Professional Sports Inc., was formed when Harold Smith decided to get into boxing promotion, notably the World Boxing Association welterweight title bout last August in which Thomas Hearns knocked out Pipino Cuevas in the second round.

And whenever Harold Smith talked about Maps, he liked to mention his devotion to Muhammad Ali. ''I have a tremendous amount of love for Muhammad Ali,'' he said two months ago. ''I built this company for Muhammad Ali, I'm the first person to use Muhammad Ali in a constructive manner. I haven't taken a dime.''

But now it is alleged that Harold Smith has taken quite a few dimes - 200 million dimes if it indeed turns out that he is involved in the alleged $20 million embezzlement, if it indeed turns out that Smith has pulled a barney.